These observations prompt a modification of the current paradigms of the pathogenesis of malaria and clear the way to investigate the pathophysiology of P. vivax infections.

Viruses with small circular rep-encoding ssDNA (CRESS-DNA) genomes can infect a wide range of eukaryotic organisms ranging from mammals to fungi. The genomes of two novel CRESS-DNA viruses, a cyclovirus (CyCV-SL) and gemycircularvirus (GemyCVSL) were detected by deep sequencing of the cerebrospinal fluids of Sri Lankan patients with unexplained encephalitis. One and three out of 201 CSF samples (1.5%) from unexplained encephalitis patients tested by PCR were CyCV-SL and GemyCV-SL DNA positive respectively. Nucleotide similarity searches of pre-existing datasets revealed related genomes in feces from unexplained cases of diarrhea from Nicaragua and Brazil and in untreated sewage from Nepal. Whether the tropism of the cycloviruses and gemycircularviruses reported here include humans or their detection reflects production from other cellular sources in or on the human body remains to be determined.

In the present study, 470 children less than 72 months of age and presenting acute diarrhea were examined to identify associated enteropathogenic agents. Viruses were the pathogens most frequently found in stools of infants with diarrhea, including 111 cases of rotavirus (23.6% of the total diarrhea cases) and 30 cases of adenovirus (6.3%). The second group was diarrheogenic Escherichia coli (86 cases, 18.2%), followed by Salmonella sp (44 cases, 9.3%) and Shigella sp (24 cases, 5.1%). Using the PCR technique to differentiate the pathogenic categories of E. coli, it was possible to identify 29 cases (6.1%) of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Of these, 10 (2.1%) were typical EPEC and 19 (4.0%) atypical EPEC. In addition, there were 26 cases (5.5%) of enteroaggregative E. coli, 21 cases (4.4%) of enterotoxigenic E. coli, 7 cases (1.4%) of enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), and 3 cases (0.6%) of enterohemorrhagic E. coli. When comparing the frequencies of diarrheogenic E. coli, EPEC was the only category for which significant differences were found between diarrhea and control groups. A low frequency of EIEC was found, thus EIEC cannot be considered to be a potential etiology agent of diarrhea. Simultaneous infections with two pathogens were found in 39 diarrhea cases but not in controls, suggesting associations among potential enteropathogens in the etiology of diarrhea. The frequent association of diarrheogenic E. coli strains was significantly higher than the probability of their random association, suggesting the presence of facilitating factor(s).

We genetically characterized seven nearly complete genomes in the protoparvovirus genus from the feces of children with diarrhea. The viruses, provisionally named cutaviruses (CutaV), varied by 1-6% nucleotides and shared ~76% and ~82% amino acid identity with the NS1 and VP1 of human bufaviruses, their closest relatives. Using PCR, cutavirus DNA was found in 1.6% (4/245) and 1% (1/100) of diarrhea samples from Brazil and Botswana respectively. In silico analysis of pre-existing metagenomics datasets then revealed closely related parvovirus genomes in skin biopsies from patients with epidermotropic cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL or mycosis fungoides). PCR of skin biopsies yielded cutavirus DNA in 4/17 CTCL, 0/10 skin carcinoma, and 0/21 normal or noncancerous skin biopsies. In situ hybridization of CTCL skin biopsies detected viral genome within rare individual cells in regions of neoplastic infiltrations. The influence of cutavirus infection on human enteric functions and possible oncolytic role in CTCL progression remain to be determined.

BackgroundPlasmodium vivax has the potential to infect 2.85 billion individuals worldwide. Nevertheless, the limited number of studies investigating the immune status of individuals living in malaria-endemic areas, as well as the lack of reports investigating serological markers associated with clinical protection, has hampered development of vaccines for P. vivax. It was previously demonstrated that naturally total IgG against the N-terminus of P. vivax merozoite surface protein 1 (Pv-MSP1) was associated with reduced risk of malarial infection.MethodsImmune response against Pv-MSP1 (N-terminus) of 313 residents of the Rio Pardo rural settlement (Amazonas State, Brazil) was evaluated in a cross-sectional and longitudinal follow up over two months (on site) wherein gold standard diagnosis by thick blood smear and rRNA gene-based nested real-time PCR were used to discriminate symptomless Plasmodium vivax-infected individuals who did not develop clinical symptoms during a 2-months from those uninfected ones or who have had acute malaria. The acquisition of antibodies against Pv-MSP1 was also evaluated as survival analysis by prospective study over a year collecting information of new malaria infections in surveillance database.ResultsThe majority of P. vivax-infected individuals (52-67%) showed immune recognition of the N-terminus of Pv-MSP1. Interesting data on infected individuals who have not developed symptoms, total IgG levels against the N-terminus Pv-MSP1 were age-dependent and the IgG3 levels were significantly higher than levels of subjects had acute malaria or those uninfected ones. The total IgG anti ICB2-5 was detected to be an important factor of protection against new malaria vivax attacks in survival analysis in a prospective survey (p = 0.029).ConclusionsThe study findings illustrate the importance of IgG3 associated to 2-months of symptomless in P. vivax infected individuals and open perspectives for the rationale of malaria vaccine designs capable to sustain high levels of IgG3 against polymorphic malaria antigens.

Shigellosis is a global human health problem and the incidence is highest among children. In the present work, main Shigella virulence genes was examined by PCR and compared to symptoms of pediatric shigellosis. Thirty Shigella isolates were identified from an etiologic study at which 1,339 children ranging 0–10 years old were enrolled. S. flexneri was the most frequent species reaching 60.0% of isolates, 22.2% were S. sonnei, and 6.6% were both S. dysenteriae and S. boydii. All Shigella infected children had diarrhea, but not all were accompanied by others symptoms of bacillary dysentery. Among major virulence genes, the PCR typing revealed ipaBCD was present in all isolates, followed by IpaH7.8, set-1A, set-1B, sen/ospD3, virF, and invE. The pathogenic potential of the ShET-1B subunit was observed in relation to dehydration (P < 0.001) and ShET-2 related to the intestinal injury (P = 0.033) evidenced by the presence of bloody diarrhea. Our results show associations among symptoms of shigellosis and virulence genes of clinical isolates of Shigella spp.

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BackgroundPlasmodium vivax is the causative agent of human malaria of large geographic distribution, with 35 million cases annually. In Brazil, it is the most prevalent species, being responsible by around 70 % of the malaria cases.MethodsA cross-sectional study was performed in Manaus (Amazonas, Brazil), including 36 adult patients with primary malaria, 19 with recurrent malaria, and 20 endemic controls. The ex vivo phenotypic features of circulating leukocyte subsets (CD4+ T-cells, CD8+ T-cells, NK, NKT, B, B1 and Treg cells) as well as the plasmatic cytokine profile (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF and IFN-γ) were assessed, aiming at establishing patterns of immune response characteristic of primary malaria vs recurrent malaria as compared to endemic controls.ResultsThe proportion of subjects with high levels of WBC was reduced in malaria patients as compared to the endemic control. Monocytes were diminished particularly in patients with primary malaria. The proportion of subjects with high levels of all lymphocyte subsets was decreased in all malaria groups, regardless their clinical status. Decreased proportion of subjects with high levels of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells was found especially in the group of patients with recurrent malaria. Data analysis indicated significant increase in the proportion of the subjects with high plasmatic cytokine levels in both malaria groups, characterizing a typical cytokine storm. Recurrent malaria patients displayed the highest plasmatic IL-10 levels, that correlated directly with the CD4+/CD8+ T-cells ratio and the number of malaria episodes.ConclusionThe findings confirm that the infection by the P. vivax causes a decrease in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets, which is intensified in the cases of “recurrent malaria”. The unbalanced CD4+/CD8+ T-cells ratio, as well as increased IL-10 levels were correlated with the number of recurrent malaria episodes. These results suggest that the gradual remodelling of the immune response is dependent on the repeated exposure to the parasite, which involves a strict control of the immune response mediated by the CD4+/CD8+ T-cell unbalance and exacerbated IL-10 secretion.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1501-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.